Abortionist pleads guilty to murder after killing dozens of newborns at ‘House of Horrors’ clinic

by John Jalsevac

• November 3, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A medical school graduate who admitted to severing the spinal cords of around 100 living and breathing newborn babies at Philadelphia’s notorious “House of Horrors” abortion clinic, has plead guilty to two counts of third-degree murder.

Although Steven Massof never had his medical license, that didn’t stop Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the owner of the Philadelphia clinic, from hiring him as an abortionist, and introducing him to his staff and clients as “Dr. Steve.”

Abortionist Steve Massof

The murder charges stem from Massof’s role assisting at two “abortions” where the babies were born alive (in one case Massof testified that he saw the baby’s leg “jerk and move”) only to have their spines promptly snipped by Gosnell.

However, those two murders were simply a drop in a bucket of Massof’s misdeeds. A Grand Jury report released earlier this year notes that Massof “admitted that there were about 100 instances in which he severed the spinal cord after seeing a breath or some sign of life.”

Massof has now become the fourth member of Gosnell’s staff to plead guilty.

Last week Adrienne Moton admitted her part in the murder of one baby, while Sherry West pled guilty for helping to drug abortion client Karanaya Mongar to death during a botched abortion. Neither women had any medical training or licensing.

A Grand Jury report released in January of this year had detailed testimony from clinic staff who said that “killing large, late-term babies who had been observed breathing and moving was a regular occurrence” and “standard procedure” at the filthy clinic: one staffer said such events happened “hundreds” of times.

Massof told investigators that about 40% of the second trimester “abortions” performed by Gosnell were past 24 weeks, at which point the babies would be viable outside the womb. He also said that he believed Gosnell would perform even later term abortions on Sundays, when the rest of the staff were away.

Another clinic worker, Tina Baldwin, told the investigators that Gosnell once joked about a baby that was writhing as he cut its neck: “that’s what you call a chicken with its head cut off.”

After news of the conditions in the clinic broke earlier this year, “scores” of women stepped forward to tell their horror stories of forced abortions and abysmally poor care at the hands of Gosnell and his employees.

Investigators who raided the facility wrote that they found that the abortion equipment broken, dirty, and rusty; downstairs, the dismembered remains of newborn and nearly-born children were stuffed into jars, bags, milk jugs, and cat food containers. Others shared space in a refrigerator-freezer with employees’ lunches.

Upon entering the building, investigators were hit by the stench of cat urine and the sight of drugged and moaning women lying on blood-stained blankets. Flea-ridden cats defecated freely on the bloodied floors.

Massof also testified that he often saw Gosnell take photographs of women’s genitalia and of dead fetuses for no perceivable medical reason.

The Grand Jury report released in January had issued scathing indictments of both the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Department of State for turning a blind eye to the clinic. The report said the government agencies had allowed the clinic to wallow in filth for years, and ignored several complaints lodged against the abortionist, while allowing his official record to remain clean.